Who is Flora Pili? Katie Taylor’s French opponent arrives in Dublin for Croke Park showdownThe unbeaten French challenger has fought mostly before small home crowds, but now faces Taylor before 80,000 at Croke Park Sat, 05 Sep, 2026 – 02:00Brendan O’Brien
Christmas was just around the corner when Flora Pili extended her pro record to 13 fights undefeated with a majority decision win over the Serbian Jelena Janicijevic at the L’Agora Champ de Foire in her own home town.
The Agora is a type of multipurpose cultural centre flanked by the D603 motorway that connects the town to the city of Metz and surrounded by a vape shop, a wine store and a supermarket in an area that has the look of a suburban industrial estate.
It holds maybe 2,000 people and half-a-dozen of Pili’s bouts have been held there. Only three of her fights have happened outside of her native region: one on the island of Corsica, another in Padua in Italy and a third in Luxembourg.
Janicijevic is a 41-year-old with just six wins in her eleven bouts.
Now Pili is about to face a global icon in Katie Taylor in front of over 80,000 people at Croke Park, and on a card being screened worldwide by DAZN and on Irish national terrestrial TV. This Dorothy is a long way from Kansas.
Read More
Katie Taylor undercard stars get the juices flowing for Croke Park extravaganza
Donald McRae: Katie finally gets her ‘fairytale ending’ with Croke Park homecoming
**********
Taylor has fought 216 times. She has taken to the ring in 21 countries and in 14 of Ireland’s 32 counties across all provinces, and won no less than 35 titles across European, World and Olympic levels between her careers as an amateur and a pro.
Her story is emblazoned into the Irish sporting consciousness, but how many of her opponents have survived the test of time? How many will we remember after Taylor exits the ring on Saturday night and walks into retirement?
Alanna Nihell was Alanna Audley when she faced Taylor in the first ever officially sanctioned female bout on Irish soil 25 years ago. Sofya Ochigava will never escape Taylor’s shadow after falling the wrong side of the decision in their 2012 Olympic final.
Those aside, will many of the amateurs she faced stand out from the crowd? Eva Wahlstrom fought Taylor six times in the unpaid ranks – and once more as a pro – but only the most committed of boxing enthusiasts will remember that.
Natasha Jones? Queen Underwood? Maybe.
Eddie Hearn was asked to choose this week between Taylor’s amateur and professional careers. It was hardly a surprise when her promoter leaned towards the latter, but the rivalries alone would count as much as any recency bias.
In Chantelle Cameron and Amanda Serrano, Taylor encountered opponents who helped her elevate each other, and women’s boxing with them, and Serrano acknowledged the bond created after their historic trilogy
with a public message this week.
“Thank you for the memories, thank you for the wars, thank you for the stitches,” she said on social media. “Enjoy retirement. You earned it. And I will always be proud that our names will forever be connected in boxing history.”
As for Cameron, she had long given up hope that her own Taylor trilogy might happen at Croke Park after winning the first and losing the return. She spoke just last month about how she is just “the wrong opponent” for the Wicklow woman.
Pili will, if nothing else, be a decent quiz question a generation from now, but will that be all?
“Boxing is ruthless,” said Stephane Hadjeras, head of the history division at the French Boxing Federation, when discussing this fight the past week. “When you triumph, you become a god of the arena. But the moment you lose, you can very quickly be forgotten.”
**********
Hadjeras, also a contemporary history lecturer, was talking to Moselle.TV and the interview he gave offered a fascinating, alternative insight into an occasion that, for understandable reasons, has been framed exclusively in Irish terms up to now.
This isn’t the first time a Gallic boxer has entered such a lion’s den.
Georges Carpentier fought Jack Dempsey in front of a similar-sized crowd in Jersey City 105 years ago. A World War I pilot who had been awarded the Croix de Guerre for his actions, Carpentier was said to be unnerved by the sheer numbers in the stands.
He would go on to fight Battling Siki in front of 50,000 in Paris while others including Robert Cohen, Marcel Cerdan and Marcel Thil all appeared before huge gatherings on home soil, none of them any more recent than 70 years ago.
Pili will be following in their distant footsteps and, she will hope, those of more recent French, and female, world champions like Myriam Lamare, Caroline Veyre and Segolene Lefebvre should the incredible happen and she claims the various belts on offer in Dublin.
So, who exactly is she?
Pili is 29 years of age and boxing since her father and current trainer Pietro took her to a gym as a 12-year-old. She was fighting for French national teams within two years, won amateur titles and turned pro in November of 2019.
A former European championship, and a current IBO European holder, she has taken unpaid leave from an administrative job in her local town hall to prepare for the biggest night of her life, and she arrives on the back of an intense three-month camp.
For eight of those days she sparred with the Algerian Ichrak Chaib, a 25-year-old undefeated in three pro bouts who was prepping for her own appearance at the upcoming Mediterranean Games. The choice was no lottery.
“We had the opportunity to bring her in,” Pili’s father told L’Equipe. “Like Taylor, she is very fast.” The strategy is simple: Taylor is shorter, by two inches, and the challengers are looking to keep the Bray Bomber out of their own red zone.
Pili was already at fight weight when she boarded the plane for Dublin on Monday and Andy Lee’s take on her, as he watched her go through her open workout for DAZN on Wednesday afternoon, was as sharp and informative as you’d expect.
“She has a good chance,” said the former world champion who described her style as solid, compact and with a good right-hand lead, but with a basic flaw in how she crosses her legs when shifting left to right. That will likely be exploited.
**********
Taylor’s opponent appeared in Dublin accompanied by her husband Joseph, her daughter Serena, her parents, the president of her local club and the Italian promoter Christian Cherci – and with her hair in eye-catching braids.
Dyed in the vivid blue, white and red of the French flag, she matched it in the ring midweek with a white tee festooned with red and blue stripes that brought to mind some of the classic French football kits of the early 1980s and 1998.
Like Taylor, she is leaning in to her patriotic pride this week. “I hope to make France proud,” she said at Tuesday’s press conference and, along with her family, she has already been received by Celine Place, the French ambassador to Ireland.
Cameron has spoken of the “hostility” she felt in the 3 Arena when facing Taylor. Pili isn’t seen as quite the same threat, and that should help her as she stands on the canvas for what’s likely to be some time before Taylor’s ring walk is complete.
All eyes will be on one woman. It’s Pili’s job, her chance, to change that.
Read More
’40 is the new 30, isn’t it?’: ageless Katie Taylor firing and ready for final fight
x
185th Anniversary Offer
Six months of digital access for €18.50
Already a subscriber? Sign in
No obligation. Ts&Cs apply.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
NEWSLETTERS
NOTIFICATIONS
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
Katie Taylor ‘blown away by support’ as fans line the street at Dublin weigh-in
Tommy Martin: At Croke Park we’ll celebrate Katie Taylor and what she represents
‘If he can’t beat me at this point he might as well pack it in’ – veteran Dave Allen calls it straight
More in this section
Issy Wong stars with five-wicket haul as England ease to series victory
‘If he can’t beat me at this point he might as well pack it in’ – veteran Dave Allen calls it straight
Katie Taylor undercard stars get the juices flowing for Croke Park extravaganza
#Katie Taylor